Taylor Swift beats Beatles in race to 12th UK number one album

LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - Taylor Swift topped the British music charts on Friday with "The Tortured Poets Department", outselling the rest of the top ten combined and beating the Beatles for the record of fastest artist to rack up 12 UK number one albums.

"Poets" delivered the biggest opening week for an album in the UK in seven years, and means Swift ties Madonna for female artist with the most UK no. 1 albums in Official Albums Chart history.

"No other artist has notched up 12 no. 1 albums in such a short space of time. Taylor Swift has done it in 11 years and 6 months," the Official Charts Company said. "This surpasses The Beatles, who managed the feat in 14 years and 1 month."

Swift's first single from the album "Fortnight", a collaboration with Post Malone, topped the UK singles chart.

"Poets" also topped charts in Australia and is set to do the same in the U.S.

Soon after its release last Friday, Spotify and Amazon Music said the recording was their most streamed album in a day.

On Wednesday, Spotify said "Poets" was its most-streamed album in a single week, surpassing 1 billion streams.

"We're past the stage where you can be surprised by Taylor Swift's achievements ... every time you think she's reached a ceiling, she appears to go beyond it with the with the next release," journalist and music industry expert Mark Sutherland said.

"She's setting the bar so high in an era when it's much, much harder to get that kind of universal popularity."

Swift has been setting music industry milestones and boosting local economies with her Eras Tour, which resumes in Paris next month.

Time magazine named her its 2023 Person of the Year, citing her musical feats and wider influence.

Swift announced "Poets" in February at the Grammys, where she won a fourth Album of the Year prize for her 2022 record "Midnights". (Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian Additional reporting by Sarah Mills Editing by Peter Graff)